Sequoyah County Deputy Receives Lewd Photo

An 18-year sex-crimes investigator with the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Department received a startling photograph via text message on Wednesday.

An 18-year sex-crimes investigator with the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Department received a startling photograph via text message on Wednesday.

Investigator Cindy Smith said she had her phone turned off Tuesday night, and when she checked it about 9 a.m. Wednesday, she saw a text that simply read "Hey," from a number she did not recognize.

Smith said she often gives her number to victims or suspects of cases she investigates, so she replied, "Yes?"

The unknown number then asked for a picture, to which Smith replied, "Of what?"

Smith said she received a picture of a man’s face whom she did not recognize. The number then said to "surprise" him.

At that point, Smith figured where the conversation was heading, she said.

After a few exchanges, the man sent Smith "an extremely inappropriate" picture of his genitals, Smith said.

"Hold on, I’ve got a better one," Smith said she sent back to the number before she sent the man a picture of her partner holding up his badge.

"After that there was radio silence," Smith said.

Smith said she identified herself as with the Sheriff’s Department and told the man to make sure he knew to whom he was sending text messages before he sent them.

Smith worried that a child might have received the messages instead of her.

Smith told the man he needed to call the Sheriff’s Department and explain himself. The man eventually called Smith’s cellphone, which Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart answered.

The man became very apologetic and told Lockhart he was trying to contact a woman he met on Craigslist, and her number was the one the contact sent him. Lockhart told the man he needed to come down to the Sheriff’s Department for an interview. The man told Lockhart he would make arrangements to do so, Smith said.

The Sheriff’s Department was able to track down the man’s name, phone number, where he lives and where he works because he was using a company cellphone, Smith said.

If the man does not come in on his own, the Sheriff’s Department will seek an affidavit for his arrest for suspected publishing or distributing obscene material, a misdemeanor, Smith said. The offense stems from someone receiving a lewd photograph uninvited.

Smith said she was unsure why, of all people, she was the one whose number the man received. The man has no connection to any previous Sheriff’s Department investigations and is not from Sequoyah County, she said.